“They believe that it is not the word of Jesus itself that they wish to evade, but that too much of what comes between them and Jesus is merely human, institutional, or doctrinaire.”

— The Bonhoeffer Reader by Clifford J. Green

What is believing?
What hinders believing?

What becomes a hindrance to believing is

• what we humanly create,
• what we build in some sort of structure to seemingly make it work better
• what can’t be challenged because we think it true.
  

Humanely what we try to explain may be limited and based on an experience that others haven’t had or shared.

The institution is so much more and totally complicated to be relevant to anything smaller and specific. It gets lost in the tangling and messy ball of twine. Rules and regulations, no exceptions, all rules.

Nothing can bend because what we believe is rigid.

Picked up a new Apple Studio desktop computer today. Decided to move away from a MacBook as the iPad allows you to do most anything you want to do portably.

The MacBook is 8 years old and beachballing regularly. The new OS will also be stunted on this machine. It has been 43 years since getting that first machine, a Apple Ii+. Seems that life will begin at 40.

Summer has arrived and with it events that will not be forgotten.

There really is a need for a lifestyle of constant education and learning. One needs the ability just to remain curious at all times. Sure you will never arrive at completing what you want to know but oh, the journey is so worth it.

When you are Zooming these days there are 2 phrases that could be brought into face to face meetings. “Could you please unmute yourself” and the other “Could you please mute yourself.” In simplest terms “Speakup” and “Shutup”.

Political engagement always involves compromises and this can weaken any strong moral or ethical stance. What is the cost of compromise?

Seems we are beginning to realize that the quality of results that any process is achieving is a function of the quality of awareness of that process. The more we see the more we can realize what is happening.

Why are so many sources of action based on a habitual pattern and/or an ego-systemic base?

The Danish word hyygeligt (hygge), that currently seems to be in vogue in the English language, is difficult to understand. Sometimes knowing what the opposite means gives it a better sense of its meaning.

Consider this recent newspaper headline:
Coronakrisen er et uhyggeligt varsel om en verden i klimakrise.
TRANSLATION
The COVID crises is a sinster and grisly omen about the world’s climate crisis.

Think about its opposite, uhyggeligt, which means anything from cheerless through to sinister to downright shocking and grisly. Having a hyggeligt time is social nirvana in Denmark. Candlelight is something used to encourage a hyggeligt atmosphere.

COVID has been with us for nine months now. The second wave begins to create havoc as most had hoped our return to normal would’ve started by now. Maybe “normal” has permanently changed.

What I have noticed through all of this is my change in listening to music. It is the ballad , the soft easy-going song that is being sought after and appreciated. There is enough “hardness” surrounding us. We need some thing that allows a softer perspective. Music seems to fit that need.

He went broke slowly, and then all at once.
—Ernest Hemingway

COVID-19: The ultimate identity politics?
https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/04/covid-19-ultimate-identity-politics

After COVID-19 passes, our future will depend on whether governments prevent or permit more environmental vandalism by large corporations. https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2020/04/after-covid-19-passes-our-future-will-depend-whether

GE Workers Want to Build Medical Equipment to Fight Coronavirus. Management Is Standing in the Way
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/general-electric-labor-protest-coronavirus-978159/

The world has changed. We lived in a world of unlimited economic growth, there were no boundaries. The man made system was built for this and we saw the many inequalities. Now we hope and pray that the growth of a virus stops, that something can go no further.

Had a call from Nils this morning. Copenhagen is much the same as Vancouver. Now in our third week it seems isolation is a mindful situation for a lot of people.

Return of the junk bonds. Greed for a crazy return.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-companies-debt/kfc-owner-yum-brands-breaks-junk-debt-markets-four-week-fast-idUSKBN21H3GT?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

While we are settling in to the new normal of working from home, there is going to be quite a bit of advice, both good and bad. Our friends at Take Control Books are attempting to cut through the noise by releasing a new book, Take Control of Working from Home Temporarily. The book is completely free (one per customer, please) and there are plenty of good, solid tips. If you have never worked from home, this is all new and the book will help you navigate the current situation.
https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/working-from-home/

Great site for open education from the University of Edinburgh.
https://open.ed.ac.uk

What today brought

• In the days of collaboration on a project with others, from home, there are some huge benefits of CC: and BCC:
• No matter how this COVID-19 has pushed the ‘stop’ button’ in our lives, when I look outside spring is not being held back. Nature’s gentle force is in display.
• Learned a newer meaning of delegation today. It not only includes those that are designated to work on a project, but also those that “need to be in the loop”. The “loop” part was new to me.
• Dogs and cigarettes are analogue means of social contact but not necessarily preferred means in the days of staying at home.
• In Vancouver the 9 O’Clock Gun is a cannon located in Vancouver, BC that is ordinarily shot daily at 9 p.m.. From 30 March to 30 April 2020, the gun is set to fire at 7 p.m., in support of local health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• I am reading Weather by Jenny Offill. It is that new literary style, no chapters but small paragraphs and sentences.
  Here is a piece — This woman is a shrink. Also a Buddhist. She likes to practice one or other on me, I’ve noticed.. “You seem to identify down, not up. Why do you think that is?”  You tell me lady.
• This is the kind of thing in today’s newer world that is completely unacceptable.
  https://t.co/w4TKe3i905?amp=1

We begin another week in a changed world. The initial shock is still there and the haunting feeling of what does the future hold. Looking inward with little human interaction is sometimes a challenge. No matter what has stopped spring is moving forward. That brings hope.

It is a start at introducing the human element directly into a technology understanding.

The Copenhagen Letter, 2017

Copenhagen, 2017

To everyone who shapes technology today

We live in a world where technology is consuming society, ethics, and our core existence.

It is time to take responsibility for the world we are creating. Time to put humans before business. Time to replace the empty rhetoric of “building a better world” with a commitment to real action. It is time to organize, and to hold each other accountable.

Tech is not above us. It should be governed by all of us, by our democratic institutions. It should play by the rules of our societies. It should serve our needs, both individual and collective, as much as our wants. 

Progress is more than innovation. We are builders at heart. Let us create a new Renaissance. We will open and nourish honest public conversation about the power of technology. We are ready to serve our societies. We will apply the means at our disposal to move our societies and their institutions forward. 

Let us build from trust. Let us build for true transparency. We need digital citizens, not mere consumers. We all depend on transparency to understand how technology shapes us, which data we share, and who has access to it. Treating each other as commodities from which to extract maximum economic value is bad, not only for society as a complex, interconnected whole but for each and every one of us. 

Design open to scrutiny. We must encourage a continuous, public, and critical reflection on our definition of success as it defines how we build and design for others. We must seek to design with those for whom we are designing. We will not tolerate design for addiction, deception, or control. We must design tools that we would love our loved ones to use. We must question our intent and listen to our hearts. 

Let us move from human-centered design to humanity-centered design.

We are a community that exerts great influence. We must protect and nurture the potential to do good with it. We must do this with attention to inequality, with humility, and with love. In the end, our reward will be to know that we have done everything in our power to leave our garden patch a little greener than we found it.

We who have signed this letter will hold ourselves and each other accountable for putting these ideas into practice. That is our commitment.

The Copenhagen Letter, 2017

I really didn’t know what to expect on this trip. One has heard so many stories about the Middle East and what is happening here. As a tourist the situation is calm, the food fantastic, the people friendly and the weather quite kind.

We have toured various project sites that the Canadian Lutheran World Relief has been part of. For so many years one has seen the reports and now you get to see the physical program. The difference our involvement has had is apparent. The people have been very kind and thankful for our participation in helping them in some small way. We didn’t do the work, they did and we only gave them the assistance that was asked for.

We have travelled to a number of cities in Jordan and have seen the countryside and the big city. What has surprised me is the number of homes that are everywhere. Except for the desert one can always see a small town or a cluster of domestic buildings. There is little break in this type of landscape.

Petra was amazing. One can only wonder how they carved out these huge edifices. It is in someways like Utah with the rock formations. The biggest difference is the people in the area, Utah has so few, Petra has quite a few. And this is low tourist season!

We were at a a church site beside the Jordan River this afternoon. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land has a church at the ELCJHL Baptismal site very close to the Jordan River. There are a number of other churches with separate building here also. It was interesting walking to the river and seeing the other side which is Israel, no more than 25 metres away.

Tomorrow we cross back over into Israel and stay put in Jerusalem until we leave next week. Looking forward to the very short bus trips that will be in order. This is a very different place which is not like any other.

The message arrived on my iPhone. The garbage truck would not be here this morning, you have to wait until tomorrow. Not a big surprise with the amount of stuff we throw out.

Do you ever think about all those items you buy or get Amazon to deliver to your house that need to go back somewhere and that somewhere is either recycling or the garbage dump. However we try, there is a ton of packaging that isn’t going to be staying in your home. It is going to leave at some point. And you are the one that will initiate its final journey.

There was a Danish newscast a few decades ago where someone with a cart of groceries had them rung up through the cashier and instead of bagging the items proceeded to remove the packaging and put the contents in containers they brought with them. Milk, sugar, flour, cereals, coffee, even Kleenex, all removed from their packaging and put into something reusable. There was a huge mound of used card boxes, plastic and paper when they were finished doing this. The store manager, now involved, said they had to take the mound with them. Their answer was “I bought the merchandise, I didn’t buy the packaging.”

That packaging is one of the keys to selling the product. It is the ultimate brand placement, on the product itself. Now after the sale, once at home in your fridge or shelf where will it end up? That’s right — with all the other stuff that can’t be in your home permanently. Wonderful coloured cardboard and plastic containers soon to be homeless.

For the past few decades we had a round plastic garbage can that housed our soon-to-be homeless items. This was built to “use” one of those grocery plastic bags you bring your stuff home in. The problem is it really wasn’t built for the bags, it was too big. There was always the pain of trying to stretch the bag around the container. It worked until some heavy wet garbage undid your valiant stretch attempt. That meant the gloppy trash went directly into the bucket which would need washing. I am sure it was the garbages last attempt to get even.

A store flyer came out showing the garbage receptacle to “replace all receptacles.” For $16.00 this beauty was built for plastic bags and would ease the pain of temporary indoor garbage storage. All in the wonderful antiseptic colour of white and with a lid which was also white. Now the transmission of affald (Danish for garbage) would work easier than an enema (English for disgusting).

Now the garbage men must be pleased when they arrive for pickup. Perfect sized white bags all piled together to fall evenly out into the truck for the last ride home for all this shit. This mess would look decent. And because we now recycle everything — paper, plastic, glass, returnables, and compostables there is no need for weekly garbage pickup. Recycleables every week, garbage pick up every other week. (This keeps the contents fermenting to the highest degree during the summer).

Yes we have arrived at trash nirvana. More recycling than rubble. The packaging we bought now goes back to be used again in some manner. We buy it, we recycle it, then we re-buy it — that is the life of a consumer, always waiting for the garbage truck.

With only a week left of work you would think it would be pretty easy to be ready for this. You’ve worked most of your life now you stop. The problem is the questions. What will you do because not doing anything seems almost obscene. What about all those people at work? Will you even see them again? What happens when your income is not dependent on getting up and going to work?

In a matter of seven days these questions will become less important because this new lifestyle will suddenly dictate your experience. One thing is certain — time will be your own to use as you choose. That new dimension will be so enjoyable.